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The Town Council Seals of Scotland

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The Town Council Seals of Scotland B ALLATER BALLATER adopted the Lindsay Act in 1891, and under the Burgh Police Act of the following year took for the Common Seal of the Burgh an adaptation of the Coat of Arms of the Farquharsons of Invercauld, who are the superiors. These Arms are as follows : First and fourth quarters, or, a lion rampant, gules ; second and third quarters, argent, a fir tree growing out of a mount in base fructed proper, and on a chief gules the Royal Banner of Scotland displayed on a canton of the first, a hand issuing from the sinister side holding a dagger point downwards proper. The Seal of the Burgh bears simply on a shield in the centre, the lions in the first and fourth quarters, and the fir trees in the second and third quarters. Beneath is the motto of the family, "Fide et Fortitudine" and in the margin is the date, 1901, when the Seal was made. The lions probably represent the Scottish Lion, and in all likelihood were taken from the Scottish Standard, which the then chief of the Farquharson family, Finlay Mohr, carried at the battle of Pinkie, where he was killed, and was buried in the churchyard at Invercauld. This Finlay Mohr, or Findla More, was a man of immense size and strength, and claimed to be descended from one Shaw M'Duff, who was a younger son of the Thanes of Fife. This Shaw M'Duff had a son called Farquhar, who, in 1371, settled down in the district of Mar, and his sons took the surname o{ Farquharson, being the sons of Farquliar, which custom was very common at that early time. It is, however, probable that King Robert the Bruce gave the family the right to carry the lion as well as the hand and dagger, on account of their services in expelling the Cummins from Badenoch. The fir tree is the badge of the Clan Farquharson, as " In the forests of Inver- cauld and Braemar," says Sir T. D. Lauder, " the endless fir woods run up all the ramifications and subdivisions of the tributary valleys, cover the lower elevations, climb the sides of the higher hills, and even in many cases approach the very roots of the giant mountains which tower over them," and thus the fir or pine, emblematic of Daring, is a fit badge for the sturdy clan who had their home in these mountainous recesses of the north. — BANFF TRADITION asserts that Malcolm Canmore had a residence at Banff, and Malcolm IV. signed a charter there in 1163. In 1164 a charter of William the Lion alludes to it as a Royal Burgh, and Robert the Bruce confirmed this charter in 1324. In Scottish history Banff is hardly mentioned. As the town is situated in a part of the ancient thanedom of Boyne, which derived its name from the high conical hill in the neighbourhood of Cullen, called the Binn Hill, it is considered probable that the name of the town, which in some old charters is spelled Boineffe and Baineffe, was taken from the name of the thanedom. The old Seal of Banff showed a boar, and a likely explanation of this may be found in the fact that in ancient times the parish of Banff was thickly wooded, and in this forest, wild boars abounded, and were, no doubt, important objects of the chase. The existence of this forest has been traditionally handed down in the following couplet : " From Culbtrnie to the sea, You may step from tree to tree." The Seal now used by the Burgh shows the Virgin Mary with the Holy Child in her arms, she being the patron saint. At one time there was a large monastery of the Carmelites or White Friars here, which was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and which is supposed to have been founded in the reign of Alexander III., but the first grant respecting it on record is dated "apud Sconam i mo die Aug. 1324," confirming, etc. " Dio, beata; Mariae Virgini, et religiosis fratribus ordinis de Monte Carmelite, capellam beata; Maria; juxta villam de Banff," etc. The Carmelites derived their origin and name from Mount Carmel, and claimed as their founder the prophet Elijah, who had his abode on the mount. It is said that a succession of devout hermits inhabited Mount Carmel from the days of Elijah, and that they early embraced the Christian faith, and forming themselves into a community, built a monastery on the mount, and an oratory, which they dedicated 26 THE TOWN COUNCIL SEALS OF SCOTLAND to the Virgin, as they had chosen her for their protectress, and who was thenceforth called " Our Lady of Mount Carmel." The Order was early introduced into Britain, and previous to that the members had worn a mantle of red and white stripes, which tradition alleged were the colours of the mantle of Elijah, but Pope Honorius IIL appointed their garb to be white, and thenceforth in Britain the Carmelites were called White Friars. The same Pope ordained them to be called " The Family of the Most Blessed Virgin," and they assumed as their Arms a representation of the Virgin and Our Lord elevated on a temple, with the figure of a Carmelite in his robes kneeling below. The motto, "Omne bonum Dei donum" was granted to the Burgh by the Lord Lyon King at Arms as recently as 1897. BANCHORY BANCHORY takes its name from the Gaelic beinn geur, meaning a sharp or pointed hill. The town adopted the Lindsay Act in 1885. For the Common Seal rendered necessary under the Burgh Police Act of 1893, a combination of the Coats of Arms of the three proprietors holding land within the burgh was made. The Seal thus bears three shields. The first shield bears the Arms of Burnett of Leys : three holly leaves in chief, and a hunting horn in base garnished. The second shield bears the Arms of Burnett-Ramsay of Banchory Lodge and Arbeadie : on one side, the Arms of Burnett of Leys, as above ; on the other side, the Arms of Ramsay of Balmain, viz., an eagle displayed, beaked and membered, charged on the breast with a rose. [In the Seal, however, the latter feature, viz., the rose, does not appear.] The third shield bears the Arms of David- son of Inchmarlo, viz., two pheons or arrow-heads in chief, and one in base, between them a fess bearing a buck couchant. We are told that King Robert the Bruce, when Earl of Carrick, had as his private badge three, or three bunches of laurel or holly leaves (called by Sir George Mackenzie Hollin leaves, because, as he says, with these, temples, altars, and other holy places were wont to be adorned), the supporters being two savages wreathed, and the motto, Sub sole, sub umbra virens. King Robert granted the lands of Leyis, by charter of 1324, to one Alexander Burnard, who seems to have been the first custodian of the Forest of Drum, and who in all probability obtained the right to carry the holly leaves from the king. The late George Burnett, LL.D., Lyon King of Arms, in " The Family of Burnett of Leys," says, " The reign of Robert the Bruce is the period when the Burnards (afterwards Burnetts) began first to be connected with Aberdeenshire. The Saxon family of Burnard, which flourished in England before the Conquest, were the progenitors of the first Alexander Burnard who settled on Deeside." As this family had charge of the Forest of Drum, they carried a hunting horn to show that they were the king's foresters in the north, and thus 28 THE TOWN COUNCIL SEALS OF SCOTLAND we have the horn on their Arms. Dr Burnett says that the Leys Hunting Horn was sometimes called the Leys tenure horn, and he gives a full-size illustration of " it, and describes it thus : It is made of ivory, fluted, with four bands of gilt round it, the two centre ones containing a carbuncle and three pieces of transparent crystal. Attached to it is a scarf or baldric of green silk, tasseled, apparently of the time of Charles II. There is no documentary history of the horn, nor any allusion to it in any of the charters. All that is known of it is that it has been from time immemorial in the possession of the family, and is believed to be a badge of office as forester or a horn of service." Dr Burnett goes on to say that " it seems reasonable enough to believe that the tradition regarding the origin of the ' horn of Leys ' is founded on fact, and that it is a horn of service. The Arms show that the family were connected with the Forest of Drum, and the horn may have been the instrument of sasine to the lands of Leys." Sir Thomas Burnett of Leys registered these Arms as they now are in 1673. Nisbet tells us that the eagle borne by those of the surname of Ramsay was adopted because they originally came from Germany ; and regarding those of the surname of Davidson, he simply mentions that they carry azure on a fess argent between two pheons or, a buck coucliant, gules. — BARRHEAD BARRHEAD came under the provisions of the Burgh Poh'ce Act of 1892 in 1894, and under that Act adopted as a Common Seal the following, said to be an adaptation from the Coat of Arms of the Stuarts of Darnley : A shield divided into four. The first and fourth quarters bear three Fleur-de-lis for Aubigny, which were part of the Coat of Arms of the old Dukedom of Lennox.
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